Activities

Academy Activities

Besides offering a "gateway to professional soccer", one of the main things that sets the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC Academy apart from other soccer clubs in the area are the number (and quality) of different activities the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC organization has to offer. Working with full time professional coaches and a full time Sporting Director, the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC is able to ensure and maintain very high quality standards and results. As part of the program, the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC Academy will organize the following activities:

Practices

Obviously one of the key activities are practices. At our practices the players will learn new technical skills, game knowledge, and skills on how to communicate and work with your team mates on and off the field. Based on the age group and level of play, the coach will use the proven development plan to ensure the highest development possible for the individual player and the team. The coach will take methodical steps to raise the expectations of the player and to motivate them to take on the next step in their development.

Tournaments

A tournament is a great opportunity to compete with other teams. The tournaments our teams are participating in are chosen by the Dutch Lions Academy coaches and Academy Director, based on the age group, level and wishes of each individual team. The premier teams will participate in more prestigious tournaments in the USA, while the Development teams will play in more regional tournaments.

Player Development Plan (PDP)

The Player Development Plan program is used to help our players meet their developmental goals. An individual plan is developed by the team coach to provide each player with more insight about their current level and the points they can improve on. The PDP contains different components for each specific age group. The PDP process for the older age groups will include more forms and questions than those of the younger age groups. After filling out the Player Development Plan forms, each individual player will have a meeting with their coach about the next steps in their development. Of course, we also want our players and parents/guardians to evaluate the coaches. Customer feedback is very important to us, as it helps us grow and become better as an organization. Therefore we incorporated these evaluations in our PDP process.

Video Analysis System

Sometimes visuals of points that can be improved in a player or teams game are much more effective than verbal feedback. To facilitate the teams with this, the FGCDL FC Premier Development Academy utilizes video analysis sessions. These sessions are a great visual aid, allowing the coach to show exactly what they have been trying to convey. The players will be able to see themselves play, see what they do well, and what they could improve on position wise. The Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC coaches are all trained to organize video analysis sessions with the team, a group of players (defenders specific for example), or players individually. All video analysis sessions are held at our office, which is equipped with all needed tools to provide our players and teams with professional analysis of their games.

Parent Meetings

The Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC will organize 2 or 3 general parent meetings each year for all academy parents to attend. At the meetings the parents will be informed about the progress and development of the club. The club will also host the Academy Awards, for Fall and Spring season during two of meetings. The general parent meetings are a great opportunity for the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC to ask for feedback on our performance. Just like player evaluations, it is important to know what parts of the academy are going well and what areas could be improved.

Parent-Player-Coach Meetings

Aside from the 2 or 3 group meetings, the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC coaches will organize two individual player/parent/coach meeting during the season: one in the Fall and one in the Spring. In these meetings the coach can inform the individual player’s parent about the development of the player and the parents can ask questions directly to the coach. We value transparency and openness with our players and parents.

Orange Family Events

The Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions FC organizes eight events per year where all parents, players, coaches and management of the club come together in fun activities. In 2015-2016 the club organized activities such as visiting a professional soccer game of the Tampa Bay Rowdies (where all academy players were allowed on the field), celebrating Halloween, Sinterklaas (a typical Dutch holiday with gifts and rhymes exchanged between players) and a season ending barbecue with soccer games between the parents and the academy players.